In flood-plagued Plaquemines parish, the west bank continues to struggle.

Highway 23 is impassable, and much of the surrounding land is covered in at least three feet of floodwaters, and in some spots, the depth is even greater.

Crews spent hours last Thursday reinforcing the Citrus Land Levee with sandbags, but Hurricane Ike's massive reach and long windspan broke the levee in two spots.

"One's about a football field long, the other's about 15 feet long," said Phillip Truxillo, Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Operations for Plaquemines Parish.

Late Saturday night into Sunday morning crews started stacking up the sandbags to try and block off some of the water, but the floodwaters were too overwhelming.

"The refinery's pumping water out because water is getting into it. It won't force it to shut it down, but it could have," said Truxillo. "We cant' allow Conoco Phillips to be flooded because it's our refinery. It's a critical infrastructure for the United States for fuel, gas, everything," he said.

The breaks in the levee will actually help recede water levels, said Truxillo. The parish is also activating 20 water pumps and counting on mother nature to lend a helping hand as well.

"There is a cold front coming tomorrow that has north winds to help it push out," said Truxillo.

But parish leaders say until hurricane protection levees come to Plaquemines Parish, each storm is another serious threat to their property and their lives.

Minos Scarabin stayed through the storm, knowing the levees may not hold up. Now, the cattle farmer is fighting to save his livelihood.

"It'll take a month at least to pump the water out," said Scarabin, referring to his pastures, covered with flood waters.

Farmers and rescue groups have spent the last two days saving as many cattle as they can. It's estimated that several hundred have been overwhelmed by floodwaters.

"We got about 800, 900 momma cows, so that's probably 1,200, 1,300 head of cows we're dealing with just on this group," said Scarabin.

The fate of his pasture land and his cattle are still questionable. Scarabin said he will depend on state and federal help to survive.

"Otherwise we'll sell out and wait until the pastures come back, in a year or six mohths, then buy another set of stock," he said.